About the Issue

“We need both the state of wildness and wonder as well as the experience of wildness and wonder for our personal well-being and the health of the planet.

In my humble home, I often wake to the yips, barks, and howls of coyote. I walk outside each morning to a sea of tall grasses, towering white pines, spikey spruce, and calls of crow. And I consider, would the feeling of happiness have come so quickly to me if I had not climbed the smooth branches of the magnolia tree in my front yard each day as a child? Would the playful curiosity within me still have a home if I had not seen the Rocky Mountains when I was sixteen years old and learned the “true” meaning of awesome? Would I feel compelled to bow to the call of the loon across a misty lake at sunrise if I’d not had the experience of portaging and paddling a canoe through the Boundary Waters or a sea kayak over the frigid June water of Lake Superior? It is in these moments of experiencing both wildness and wonder that keeps me in close relation to daily gratitude and keeps a smile on my face.

We all know that it is in our early years that we are filled with wonder and curiosity. It is still within us as we grow older. It is our opportunity to nurture this daily. You will be reminded of this in the following essays, poetry, and photographs.

This fall, we return to our roots, the place of curiosity and wonder inherent in us as children, our past. It is through connecting with the stories and experiences of our past that we can often better understand our history and live into the present. In these stories, you will also hear the theme of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. In this time of transition of Northland College and the SOEI, we return to the roots of the Institute. We lean on the past for wisdom, reconnection, and support. It is in this spirit that the contributors to this issue of Intangible are former directors of the SOEI. I feel certain their stories will move you.

As you journey through the fall 2024 issue of Intangible, we invite you to remember your own connections with wildness and wonder as our writers do here.”

—Katherine Jenkins, Director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute